Christ Through The Bible: Genesis 12-22. The Covenant With Abraham

The Importance of Abraham

You are now approaching one of the most important sections of Scripture there is as far as interpretation of the Bible is concerned. Genesis 12-22 is absolutely key for understanding much of the rest of the Bible. Romans, Galatians, and parts of Hebrews are directly linked to these chapters. Without some kind of knowledge of Genesis - and Abraham in particular - much of the Bible is not going to make any sense. Furthermore, Genesis 12-22 presents the first major fork in the road for Biblical interpretation that will determine many things for a believer from this point on. It will sway one on which group of Christians he is likely to associate with, what churches he is likely to attend, what denominations he will likely join, and all kinds of emphases that will attract his attention, such as prophecy and his view on the nation of Israel, for example. In addition, one of the most dramatic periods of revelation in the history of redemption was about to begin. In the next 200 years, the Lord gave a ton of information about Eve's Avenger and His identity.

Christ Primary in Genesis 12-22

After His resurrection In Luke 24:13-27, Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus and walked unrecognized with His disciples who were discussing all the events that had happened primarily in the previous week. Jesus asked them what they were talking about, and they were astounded that He had not heard about these events. When he asked them "What things?", they told Him about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, his crucifixion, the disappearance of His body and the reported appearance of angels at his tomb that very morning. All this was related with sadness and perplexity about what it all meant. It was then that Jesus said,

"'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (See also John 5:39)

In this summary of Scripture above, you will come to understand that Jesus would have had to talk about Abraham and how he pointed to Himself in His suffering followed by glory. Although you might not expect it, God's covenant with Abraham is LOADED with Christ as the major theme in these verses.

The Covenant With Abraham - The Promise

**There is a diagram towards the end of this lesson on page 9 that you may use to follow the development of this discussion about Abraham's heir. It may be found also at: http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_7_-_Genesis_12-22_-_The_Covenant_With_Abraham.pages

When Genesis 12 begins, Abraham and his childless wife were living in Haran with his father Terah. The whole family had been on its way from Ur of the Chaldees to go live in Canaan but had settled in Haran along the way. When Abraham was 75 and his wife Sarah was 65, God spoke to Abraham and made a covenant promise him. Remember that Abraham was directly in the promised line of Shem through whom the Redeemer would come.

The covenant promise to Abraham is found in Genesis 12:3-4 in its initial portion, but it just keeps coming and unfolding in the following chapters with more information. Let's take a look at each of these installments and see how the content of the covenant develops as time passes.

The first is in Genesis 12:3,4. Four simple facts are presented.

I will make you a great nation.
I will make your name great.
I will bless/curse those who bless/curse you.
All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The second installment is just a few verses later in Genesis 12:7. "I will give your offspring this land." God will give Abraham a LAND and OFFSPRING. It is easy to start concluding prematurely that the land and people are Canaan or Israel and the Jews or the nation of Israel.

In the third mention of this covenant promise in Genesis 13:14-16, God says he will give both ABRAHAM and his OFFSPRING this LAND FOREVER, and the offspring will be as INNUMERABLE AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH. Although many think the land is Canaan or Israel, Abraham knew right then that it wasn't because God said the land given to his offspring would be theirs FOREVER. Isn't it apparent that Canaan and Israel aren't going to be there forever? The Bible tells us the end of this world is coming, all will be burned up, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth, II Peter 3:10-13. Therefore, Abraham looked forward to not just a small, local patch of land but to an entirely new WORLD that would be his and his offspring's, which is exactly what Romans 4:13 says, "...Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world"

In Genesis 15:1, the 4th mention of the covenant promise, God tells Abraham what the real objective of the covenant is: GOD HIMSELF is Abraham's great reward. Here is a hint at what is coming. It is called the Immanuel Principle, that God will dwell in the midst of His people and be with them forever.

Let's summarize what we have so far. God is going to make Abraham's name great by making him into a great nation of people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth in their own land, which is the world, forever where God Himself will be the great reward. The land will not be the center of Abraham's inheritance. The blessing of the covenant is that God Himself will be the heart of the inheritance and will be what the covenant promise is all about, which is exactly the condition that existed in the Garden of Eden where Adam lived directly in the presence of and in fellowship with his Creator . Here God announces that He is restoring through Abraham a people in a world that will be theirs forever and a condition (God with them) which will approximate Eden.

To continue the fourth announcement in Genesis 15:2-5, since Abraham had yet had no children to even suggest he was going to have any of the promises mentioned, Abraham concludes that his heir must be his servant Eliezer. However, God tells him that a son from Abraham's own body - other than Eliezer his servant - will be his heir and through that son his offspring will be as numerable as the stars. Now let's stop right here. No name of the child he will have is given. Nor is a time given when this will happen. It looks as if Abraham concluded somehow that this Son from his own body would be the "great reward" of God Himself and the One who would link together all these promises he was being given. You must remember that Abraham was in the direct line of Noah and Shem and Peleg through whom the promise of the Redeemer would come. So Abraham was probably aware of part of his heritage and the fact that the Conqueror would likely come through his branch of the family. It is not difficult to conclude that from what he had heard thus far that the promise was actually going to be realized through himself. When one reads Genesis 15:6, that seems to be exactly what Abraham thought because the text says, "...he believed the Lord, and He (the Lord) counted it to him as righteousness." One is not counted righteous by believing just anything God says or by believing that any son would come from him but by believing in Christ who justifies the ungodly. This is exactly the point expressed in Romans 3:21-4:5. Jesus Himself expressed exactly what Abraham believed, and what became clearer and clearer to Abraham as his days passed, in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see MY day. He saw it and was glad."

In addition, there is something even more significant here that comes from the New Testament and may not be so apparent without the New Testament. Galatians 3:16 says, "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring (seed). It does not say, And to offsprings (seeds),' referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring,' who is Christ." So it is clear the promises God made to Abraham were also to Christ, who was the single heir, or Seed, of Abraham in whom all these offspring as numerable as dust and stars are found. What this means is that the promise of land (or the world) and people was to Abraham's ONE SEED. The promises weren't made to many people, which is what one could easily conclude without Galatians 3:16. If the promises had been made to many people, then the promises would have been made to the Jews. But Paul says in Galatians that the promises were made to one seed, or one person, who is Christ.

With that in mind, take another look at Genesis 12:3,4.

I will make you a great nation - God will make Christ into a great nation.
I will make your name great - a name that is above every name.
I will bless/curse those who bless/curse you - depending on what one does with Christ, that is his destiny.
All peoples on earth will be blessed through you - people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It all refers to Christ.
View Christ through Genesis 13:14-16, "All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted." All the land, or the world (according to Romans 4:13) will be given to Christ, and the offspring through Christ will be as the dust of the earth (or innumerable). All of this accords with other Scriptures about Christ. For example, in Psalm 2:8 God says to His Son, "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." There is the promise of people and land to Abraham's single Seed.

Therefore, Abraham concluded somewhere in here that whoever his Son was going to be, He was his heir and all the offspring promised to Abraham was in that one Seed, or Heir, or connected to that Seed.

The Oath - Genesis 15:8-21

After Abraham believed God's promise about the heir from his own body, he asked God this question, "How can I know I will take possession of the land, or world, you promised me forever?" He wanted some assurance.

That question provoked an incredible response from God, as it should have. God could have simply said to Abraham, "Because I SAID SO." That would have and could have ended it all right there because the Bible says that God NEVER LIES, Titus 1:2, Numbers 23:19. But God didn't do that. God did something that has never been repeated ever again. One who never lies does not need to do anything else when He makes a promise. His word is truth, and it is sufficient by itself. But in this case, God went further than that and backed up his promise with an OATH, or another short term promise to guarantee the long term promise. It was a promise to promise. The One who never lies took an oath to prove He was telling the truth. This is an incredulous event, and it has ramifications one would not expect. The writer to Hebrews refers to God's promise and His oath in Genesis 15 as "two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie" Hebrews 6:13-18. The first unchangeable thing was God's promise. Then comes the second unchangeable thing, God's oath.

He told Abraham to cut into pieces a heifer, a female goat, a ram, and place with them a slain turtle dove and pigeon. He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abraham. God then gave Abraham a powerful vision in which He passed between the pieces of the slain and torn animals.

Abraham knew what God was doing. He had taken part in similar ceremonies. This is the way important contracts were sealed in his culture. If two people agreed to certain terms, instead of signing documents they would both pass between parts of animals that had been killed and hewn. They were declaring, "May this be done to me if I do not fulfill my promises." God passed through the carnage of the dissected animals. It was a unilateral covenant. Only God passed through those pieces. He was saying to Abraham: "May this be done to me if I do not fulfill my promises to you." He made a covenant to forfeit His own life should He fail. Since God cannot lie, Hebrews 6 says that this promise and oath together is a "sure and steadfast anchor for the soul (verse 19)." We have God's promise, and we have His promise supported by His oath that what He promised to Abraham will come to pass. God essentially said that when you see the oath completed, you will know for an absolute certainty that I will fulfill my promise.

The oath included God passing through the pieces of meat, but it also included some very specific new information in 15:13-16, 18-21. God said that the physical descendants that would come from Abraham would eventually be in bondage in a land not theirs (Egypt) for 400 years. God promised He would deliver Abraham's physical descendants from Egypt and bring them to Canaan once the Amorites had filled up their cup of sins. It is then that God will give Abraham's physical descendants the physical land of Canaan in its entirety outwards to the boundaries defined in verses 18-21.

According to Joshua 21:43-45, God performed His oath perfectly about 600-800 years later. Solomon was at the height of his political power in I Kings 4:20-21 and II Chronicles 9:26 and still enjoyed the benefits of God having fulfilled that oath. Shortly afterward, the borders of God's promise began to shrink because of Israel's disobedience. By the time of the New Testament, all of that land possession promised in Genesis 15 was gone, and the physical descendants of Abraham have never received it back (and never will again) because the land promise was part of the oath and not part of the promise. Thus, the oath having been completed, we are assured the larger promise will be too.

Ishmael - Genesis 16

In Genesis 16, Abraham is still waiting for that son, or his Heir, that God promised him. He is now 86, and Sarah is 76. His wife thinks her age will preclude her ever having any children with Abraham. So she tells him to have a child with her maidservant Hagar, which Abraham does since he must have concluded the same as she and that God meant Abraham's Heir would come through another, namely Hagar. It made Sarah very jealous of Hagar when Sarah discovered Hagar was pregnant. God made a promise to Hagar that her son's descendants would be "too numerous to count." (16:9) Abraham had heard those words before and probably understood them conclusively to mean that the Heir God gave him was going to be the son of Hagar. Abraham gave him the name Ishmael. Ishmael eventually became the father of the Arab nations.

The Covenant Reaffirmed - Genesis 17:1-8

In the fifth word from God in Genesis 17:1-8, God reaffirms His covenant of an increasing number of descendants through Abraham's heir, or Seed, so that Abraham will be the father of many nations and that kings will come from him. This accords with Romans 4:16-18 where Abraham is called the father of many nations. We know at the end of time in the new heavens and new earth that the new world will be made up of those from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 4:9), and the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it (Revelation 21:26). The people who make up this new world are called "kings and priests to God" (Rev. 1:6, KJV), or a "kingdom of priests" who will rule and reign with God in his kingdom. The same is repeated in Revelation 5:8-10, "...with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." This fuller description of the descendants of Abraham excludes just the Jews only as being Abrahams' descendants because many nations are included.

God also repeats that this covenant is EVERLASTING. The land of Canaan will be both Abraham's and his descendants' EVERLASTING possession. And...God will be the God of both Abraham and his descendants. Here the Immanuel Principle is slightly expanded in this promise, but it is important to see that the descendants of Abraham through his Heir will be believers and own the Lord as their God. Again, everything keeps getting winnowed down in its specifics to a place and time that is not of this world but is more like a reestablished Eden before sin.

To summarize this again, God is going to make Abraham's name great by making his Heir into a great nation of kingly, royal people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of the sky in their own land forever, which is the world or new heavens and new earth, where God Himself will dwell with His people forever as their God. All these people are going to be in Abraham's heir, Christ. The land will not be the center of Abraham's inheritance. The blessing of the covenant is that God Himself will be the heart of the inheritance, which is exactly the condition that existed in the Garden of Eden where Adam, as God's regent, enjoyed the Garden and all the earth in the presence of God. Here God announces that He is restoring through Abraham a people, a land, and a condition which will approximate Eden.

Circumcision - The Sign of the Covenant, Genesis 17:9-14

God then gives Abraham a physical sign of his covenant promise and its significance. That sign is circumcision and was to be placed on all of Abraham's male, physical descendants and any brought into the covenant relationship with God who were not his physical descendants. It was to be a reminder of God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants through Abraham's Heir and how they became covenant recipients. He would circumcise their hearts. A circumcised heart is a heart that has had the flesh (sin) cut from it so that that person would love the Lord with all his heart and soul, and live (Deuteronomy 30:6). A circumcised heart would own the Lord as his God and God would dwell with him. So it was an apt emblem of the promises made to Abraham for any of Abraham's descendants to bear. (As an aside, the sign of circumcision on males only and removal of sin by blood was later changed to baptism and removal of sin by water in the New Testament after Christ had fulfilled all the covenant promises given to Him by the Father. The new sign included both males and females as a signature of completion of the covenant.)

Isaac, Abraham's Heir? - Genesis 17:15-22

God at last announces the coming of the promised son from both Abraham's and Sarah's own bodies. Abraham is now 99, and Sarah is 89. Abraham laughs at these words when he hears that his wife is going to have a baby and tells God to just let Ishmael be his heir, as he had probably supposed he was anyway. But God said, "...your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I wi